- How does this piece’s rhetorical properties contribute to its meaning? (think blending of image/ text, tone, audience, color, design, etc)
The piece that I chose is “Pandemic Haiku” by Greg Bordowitz. It accurately represents how everyone felt when the COVID pandemic first started. Each Haiku represents a period of time during the pandemic that each reader can viscerally recall. The poem also embodies how the pandemic continued to drag on and eventually altered our perception and meaning of time. The way Bordowitz chose to organize his paper was also very interesting because most of the pages are empty and do not contain many words. I believe he did this to reflect how there were not that many things happening during the early stages of the pandemic which felt very isolating. The tone seems to be reminiscent and reflective, but also deeply sad and disheartened. The piece uses multiple rhetorical properties to give the audience an insight into how life was during the pandemic.
- How does the text resonate with social or political concerns of the present?
This text resonates with the social concerns of the present because everyone has experienced the instances Greg Bordowitz is describing; we all sat in our homes and watched the seasons pass, we all went to get the vaccine when it was released, and some of us chose not to, which created controversy. Because we are still in the pandemic, the Haiku’s also represent how everyone is still trying to slowly get back on their feet and recover from the lockdown. We are all trying to find a new “normal” despite the fact that it seems like things will never be how they once were.
- What conclusions can you draw from this text to build an argument for what impact art might make on political or social concerns?
Art is an abstract medium that enables authors to convey feelings, emotions, and desires without having to present their thoughts in a conventional way. Especially in the case of a Haiku, it forces Bordowitz to include only the most relevant words and events. Despite his simple language, he is able to make us recall lived experiences that we all shared. His Haikus are reminiscent of the desperation we have all felt for answers, the hopelessness we endured as seasons dissolved into the air, and the human urge to still find meaning and life in the most mundane of times. Bordowitz’s collection of Haikus is written and formatted like the physical embodiment of time passing. Often, politics becomes polarized to an extent that everyone must pick a side, everyone must choose their version of right and wrong; art enables commentary and bias without polarization.
I think it’s interesting how so many people want to go back to the normalcy of the pre-pandemic but I don’t think we will ever go back to that era. The pandemic helped change the way we view many things, and trying to revert back to our old ways and act like nothing happened would be a herculean task.
I also chose to write about this piece and I completely agree with what you wrote. I think that due to this piece being extremely relatable, I found it very interesting in the way the author chose to talk about their/the experience of living during a pandemic. It made me realize how much things have changed during the pandemic and I also don’t see it returning entirely back to how it used to be before everything began.